The Return Of Bleck
by JJ11223344
Summary: Mario and Luigi's peace is interrupted by a sudden attack from Bowser. But soon they realize that they must work together to overcome a new threat. This story has been completely redone.


Return of Bleck

**Author's note: This story was originally an idea I had a long time ago. I had it up for some time, but it was poorly written, so I decided to redo it. I know it's long, but if you read it, thank you. Also, reviews are always welcome. Please enjoy.**

The Mushroom Kingdom had always had threats against it, weather it was feuds with the neighboring koopas or interdimentional warfare, each threat had been dealt with. Now they finally showed signs of slowing down. The kingdom's greatest heroes finally had time to take a nice long break.

Mario and Luigi had been getting together a lot recently to catch up, weather they were going on small adventures or just sitting in one of the Mushroom Kingdom's vast grassy plains and enjoying the fresh fall air.

Today was one of the days where they were just enjoying the scenery. It was pleasantly cool and the grass just began to turn red. They had ended one of their five-minute conversations and were taking a minute or two to think of a new subject to bring up. Mario was leaning against against the side of a rocky outcrop like it was a wall wall. In one hand he had a fire flower and in the other he juggled three fireballs effortlessly.

"You're really good at that." Luigi said from the log he was sitting on.

"It's easier than it looks." Mario said. "Wanna try?"

"I doubt I could do it. Say, have you heard anything from Bowser at all?"

"Not since our last encounter, no. My guess is he's low on resources. We probably won't have to worry about him any time soon."

"Well, I definitely don't mind that" Luigi said putting his hands behind his head. Mario took a look at the sun, which he saw was almost getting ready to set.

"Are you gonna stay for dinner?" he asked.

"Sure, Daisy and I don't have anything planned."

Mario gently tossed the fireballs into a puddle which was a result of one of the rainstorms a few days prior. As they made contact with the cool miniature spring they sizzled and disappeared. He gently placed the bright red flower on the ground so that it may re-root itself.

"We better get going, then."

But they only took a few steps before they realized something was amiss.

"Bowser…" Mario clenched his fists.

Down the hills that lead to the castle was some sort of craft in the center of the field. It was a jet, painted green and yellow. The front was decorated with a red Maine, horns and a monstrous face resembling its owner. And as Mario had said, none other than the king of koopas himself stood on top of it. Several troops, about fifty koopas and fifty goombas surrounded the ship.

"Think we can take them out before dinner?" Mario asked.

"No problem." Luigi said eagerly. So they charged. Goombas and koopas being the weakest of Bowser's troops, Mario and Luigi were having no problem fighting them off. Bowser expected this. He briefly retreated to the cockpit of his new ship to press a button, only to come back out once more. Mario noticed a compartment open on the ship and a big purple ball shot out and landed on top of a group of troops. As if this wasn't odd enough, the ball grew two arms with giant hands, an antenna, and two eyes.

"What the-" Mario was cut off by the mechanical monster grabbing them both. Bowser jumped off his ship. While they were still in the grasp of the round minion, Bowser took both of their hats, revealing their messy hat hair. He muttered something. Mario only heard "...Dark Mario and Luigi." He put the hats back on their heads.

"You know what to do, Chuckya." And Chuckya served his purpose and chucked the Marios far away from the field. Bowser and his remaining army of turtles and mushrooms hopped into the ship and flew off.

Mario's eyes opened to see his brother getting up.

"You okay?" He asked his brother.

"I'm fine." The sun was almost set now and there was a pink glow to the sky. Neither Mario nor Luigi were usually out at this time.

"So what do we do now, Mario?"

"Better get home for dinner and check on Peach. I'm not going to get worried about this attack yet. Bowser probably didn't even expect us to show up."

But before they even looked in the direction of the castle something else caught their attention. It sounded as if a passenger plane was about to crash onto them.

Ohh... Mama mai..."

A huge black ship was crash landing straight in their way. It seemed to come out of nowhere. It covered what remained of the sun and created an artificial eclipse. Mario ran to the left and Luigi to the right, but neither of them quite managed to escape the impact. Mario and Luigi were airborne yet again. They weren't sure if landing would kill them or just knock them out, but they knew for sure it wasn't going to be pretty.

The impact quickly pushed them away as fire engulfed the next few acres. One small portion of the ship remained in one peace. It was some sort of black box with a hatch on it. Someone punched through it. He had been around before but now he seemed completely different, cloaked and faceless. He held a scepter and wore a top hat on his head. Behind him came a militia of purple dots, about the size of bees, which split and multiplied around him.

"It's time to have some more fun...Bleh heh heh heh!" He cackled

_The next day_

Mario couldn't see at first. His body was hurting, but nothing felt broken. As the blankness faded and his vision returned, he saw that it was bright outside. He also found himself laying in a very uncomfortable position with his torso facing sideways an his feet facing the ground and his arms twisted around. He slowly adjusted his position.

"Oww..." He muttered as he got up. Then he gasped from the surprise of someone standing there in front of him. He was waring the same clothes as Mario, except yellow and purple rather than red and blue. His hat had a messy blue 'W' scribbled on. His huge arms took some attention away from his fat torso and small feet with tiny grime-covered shoes. His teeth were dull and his nose seemed to be frozen in an ugly wrinkled position. His scrappy mustache made Mario's looked like it was professionally barbered.

"So, Wario," Mario said aggressively. "Are you here this time to fight, or to help?"

"Hehhehheh..." Wario chuckled "Don't worry; I'm here to help you, temporily, of course. Something's going on here, and I don't wanna get killed figuring it out myself."

His voice was loud and scratchy and it irritated Mario's ears. Mario and Wario were opposites, and Mario didn't enjoy his company, but he was desperate for answers. He nodded.

"Wait." Mario said. "My brother. Where's Luigi?"

"Well, he's either dead or captured by now."

"Captured by who!" Mario shouted angrily. "We need to find him now!"

_Bowser's Castle_

"This sucks!" Bowser yelled from behind steel bars.

"And you're telling me?" Peach yelled from the cell across. "I never thought being kidnapped _with_ you would be worse than being kidnapped _by _you."

"Well," Bowser said, "At least you're not a prisoner in YOUR OWN CASTLE!"

"It's fun listening to you two argue." A voice said from the stairway. "And by the way, this is my castle now, Bowser." Count Bleck appeared right outside the bars and started laughing out loud for no apparent reason.

"What do you want, Bleck?" Bowser said.

"I have a brand new friend for you!" And in a cloud of black smoke, a barely conscious Luigi appeared. He opened a new cell and threw him in and locked it. "Oh, by the way, we're moving you to a new castle in Ice Land so nobody can find you. It's already built. I'll see you when transportation arrives!"

"You know what?" Bowser said. "Screw this." Bowser took something from behind his back. It was a vile with a neon pink colored fluid inside. He drank it in one gulp. His teeth became twice as sharp and his horns became much more vicious. He started growing in size until he was almost touching the ceiling. He punched through the wall with ease, making a hole perfect for him alone to escape.

"I'll come back for you, my beautiful castle!" And he ran. He had someone he needed to meet.

_Field in the Mushroom Kingdom_

Mario and Wario searched the field for Luigi, but he was nowhere to be found. Neither were aware of his true fate.

"Mario, we searched this whole plain! I think it's time we calledit quits." Wario yelled.

"I guess you're right. Let's go back to the castle and I'll have Peach set out a search party. Then we'll investigate that crash site."

So they carried on a few more miles until they came to a pile of rubble in a moat of murky water. Mario's eyes widened in shock as Wario started sscavenging through the wreckage.

"This is the castle? I remember it looking a bit more regal last time I was here." Wario said fooling around with a shattered diamond chandelier.

"Put it down, Wario." Mario said sadly. "Someone tore it down. I'm guessing whoever was in that ship."

"I'll tell you who it was." Mario and Wario both turned their heads toward the sound of the grumbling voice. Mario got ready to avoid an attack.

"Bowser!"

"Count Bleck arrived last night. He stole my castle, took me prisoner and he also has your precious girlfriend and brother."

"I defeated Bleck!" Mario yelled, still not convinced that it wasn't Bowser himself. "I sent him back to his own dimension!"

"He has returned." Bowser insisted. "And he's different now. He's a bigger threat. He's transporting them to Ice Land. You two won't be able to handle it on your own. I'll join you for now."

"Great!" Wario said. "Let's get goin' then!"

"Wait." Mario said, still reluctant to take Bowser's word for it. "How can I trust you?"

"Bleck is a threat to everyone. It's more than just good guy bad guy thing. We all need to work together in order to survive. Trust me. I'm an ally now." And he truly was.

Meanwhile, something approached the new team from the woods. An army of former allies turned on their beliefs with a simple tool. Mario turned and saw the mushroom citizens with blank expressions and antennas with blinking red lights on top of their heads. They were approaching like zombies.

"Mamamia, It's a plague!" Mario yelled. Wario picked up a brick and threw it at one of them, who fell over and exploded.

"Don't let them touch you!" They all started running. Wario fell behind, breathing heavily.

"Hey, wait up, guys!" He said. Mario turned around. They were about to catch Wario.

"Can't you go any faster?" Mario called back.

"Well, I do have this!" Wario took out a small metal block which unfolded in a complex process and eventually turned into a motorcycle with a yellow finish and a blue 'W' scribbled on to match Wario's hat. He hopped on and blasted way ahead of Mario and Bowser.

"Yahoooooo!"

_Bowser's Castle, as evacuation nears_

Count Bleck observed the hole in the wall that Bowser created.

"Well, I'll admit that Bowser escaped rather easily" He said. "But the new Castle will have walls twice as thick. And we've got people from all over your world being transported there now. AND… Bowser _will_ come back. We have his son among all prisoners."

Peach and Luigi didn't seem to care at all what he was saying.

"You'll get used to me as a master soon enough. It's time we moved you now. Guards!" A hammer brother walked in. Count Bleck tossed over the keys.

"You'll be transporting these two. I'm going to teleport there."

"Thank you, master Bleck!" He said as if it was an honor to be working for him. Outside Luigi and Peach noticed Donky Kong, Waluigi and Bowser Junior also being forced into the backs of trucks. As they departed in the vehicles, Count Bleck started opening portals above the castle. The portals dropped bombs with a purple tint to them into his former base. Most of the castle had been evacuated, only some useless troops remained. Count bleck had one wind-up bob-omb, which he proceeded to wind up and let walk towards the castle. He jumped up and down in anticipation as the bomb prepared to blow. The force of one bob-omb isn't spectacular, but when it detonates close to another bob-omb, it can ignite that one too. This caused a chain reaction which put Bowser's castle up into smoke. As the bricks fell, Count Bleck started dancing in them as if it were raining candy and gumdrops.

_The road to Bowser's Castle_

"Will you please SLOW DOWN?" An increasingly aggravated Mario called while Wario was still blasting ahead on his bike. They already outran the mind-controlled mushroom citizens.

"How about you use your feet, huh? Gee, I'm surprised that THE super Mario can't catch up to ME on a motorcycle!"

"With all your weight pushing down on it, I'm surprised too!"

"Wario!" Bowser yelled.

"And you! Don't you have some sort of epic spell to make you move faster?" Wario said to Bowser.

"Use your _eyes_, Wario!" Mario yalled.

"Huh?" Wario turned around just on time to see a stray bullet bill flying straight at him. He didn't have time to act. They collided and Wario was sent flying off his bike. He hit the ground and bounced a few times, then slowly got back up.

"Oww... MY BIKE! It's ruined!"

"If we walk," Bowser said, "We'll be there before the sun sets."

So as the sun started setting they arrived at Bowser's base. By now the smoke had blown away and Count Bleck moved on to Ice Land. There were only a few walls left of the castle.

"He must have already moved them. Or at least I _hope_ he did." Bowser said.

"We better take a break here." Wario said, exhausted even though he didn't walk very far.

"We can plan our trip out." Mario suggested, when under the ruins crawled a group of Bowser's troop that got left behind. They were tinted in purple and were ready to attack.

"The plague has taken over my troops!" Bowsr yelled. The three prepared to fight the possessed army. They were outnumbered, but that was nothing new. Bowser's fire breath was a strong and intimidating attack. Wario used his appetite as an advantage against the goombas. They were mushrooms, after all, and everyone knows mushrooms can be a nutritious and tasty treat. His upper arm strength shattered the shells of the koopas.

Mario was pretty agile despite his average appearance and used his punches and kicks as well as his superior jumping ability to smash the enemies. He was dealing with them with more ease than ever. Perhaps the plague made them weaker, or maybe Mario had gotten stronger since the battle the previous day.

"Whah!" He yelled as he backhanded a goomba. "Hoohoo!" He kicked a shell into a whole pack of enemies and took them all out. By the time all the enemies were gone, Mario hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Well, that was pretty fun, right guys?" Mario said as they sat around a campfire.

"No! I had to turn on my own troop!" Bowser shouted.

"Well, I think your troop tasted pretty good!" Wario said.

"This sucks! I should be the threat. I should be sitting on a throne trimmed with the most precious ore in the world and cushioned with the hide of the rarest of beasts! I should be dining on the meat of the highest quality while plotting my next land to conquer!" Bowser began complaining.

"Is that ALL you think about?" Mario accused. "Planning what you're going to conquer next? What would happen if you conquered everything? Then what?"

"Then I win!"

"You win? What are you going to do when you win? Did you ever think about that? You'd be lost if you win, so maybe you should rethink that before you complain. Maybe you deserve what's happening to you right now. Notice how great everything was before."

"You have no idea what it's like to be king."

"Well actually I think of myself as king of my own little world!"

"Yeah, well all that doesn't work for me. I need to actually rule something that has meaning! I can't be happy knowing that my enemies like you are still thriving!"

"Hey!" Wario interrupted. "What do you think Luigi's doing right now? Oh yeah! Luigi time! Luigi time!" he mimicked Luigi.

Bowser and Wario both burst out laughing and Mario couldn't help but chuckle too as he thought of the stupidity of the argument and Wario's randomness. He looked up at the moon for a while as the laughing died down.

"Ya know?" Mario said, not noticing his eyes turning red. "I really wanna kill you two."

"What?" As soon as Wario said that Mario turned around and punched him in the face. Wario went down easily.

"Oh... crap!" Bowser said as he remembered what he did to Mario's hat the previous day. "Mario, try to fight it!" Mario turned to Bowser.

"Mario has left the building..."

Mario charged at Bowser and attacked, easily gaining the upper hand. Bowser knew how to reverse his spell, but first he needed Mario's hat. He tried to get it, but Mario protected it as if something else controlled him and it knew that it depended on the hat. Bowser went to his last resort; a golden mushroom that he had hidden on him.

"I hate these things..." He said and ate it, despite his hate for mushrooms.

Bowser became tinted in gold and fast enough to overpower the possessed Mario. He yanked his hat off which immediately caused Mario's eyes to turn back to normal and fall to the ground. Bowser performed the reverse spell on the hat and then winged it out as if it were soaked. Mario got up on time to see the red fog-like essence rise off his hat.

"Here." Bowser tossed the hat over. "You can wear it now."

"Why did you do this?" Mario asked, strangely with no hint of accusation in his voice.

"I figured if you became possessed you would either kill all the palace guards or they would kill you."

"Very evil. What about Luigi? You didn't do it to him, too did you?"

"Well, I made yours activate on a crescent moon. Your brother's will activate on a full moon. The only thing is that he has a stronger version of it to assist his weaker muscles. But as long as we get to him by the next full moon I can reverse it without the same problem."

Mario walked over to Wario who had his hand over where Mario hit him.

"I'm sorry."

"I'll let it slide this time." So the party gathered again around the fire.

"Bleck and the prisoners are headed for Ice Land." Mario pulled out a map and showed it to Wario and Bowser.

"You see where I'm pointing? We're here. Now here's the castle, so we traveled from here, to here. Now Ice Land is waaaay over... here. That's a pretty long walk. Now there is a shortcut about halfway, right here. Piranha Pipe. It's dangerous, but it'll take us right here. That's pretty much right outside Ice Land."

"You two can do that." Bowser said. "I have something in Dark Land I think can help. I know some warps that will get me to meet up with you two."

Mario took out a clear box with blue outlines. It was meant to shrink power-ups such as mushrooms to make them easier to store.

"Wing caps. These should help us make better time." Wario and Mario put them on.

"Hoo!… Hoohoo!… YAHOO!" Mario jumped three times and took off into the night sky.

"Yah!... Wah!... Waha! Wario followed.

"Okay, Wario!" Mario shouted. "Look out for anything flying at you, especially bob-omb cannons."

"Okay!"

As they flew, they began to feel the climate change. First they had to go over some hot tropical land to get to the frozen destination. A few Para-troopas came flying at them.

"You go under, I'll go over!" Mario yelled. They both managed to avoid them, but Wario almost hit one. Eventually Mario saw four creatures running on the ground below.

"It's Yoshi! Piranha pipe is ahead, but we're almost out of wing power Let's see if we can get a ride!"

So they used the last of their wing power to land near Yoshi and his friends.

"Yoshi, the princess has been captured. Do you think we can get a ride through Piranha Pipe?"

"Mmm... Piranha flowers!" Yoshies' favorite snacks besides fruit are piranah plants. Yoshi made a gesture to hop on. Wario hopped on the blue one and nearly broke its knees. They soon made their way to the pipe maze. One piranha plant popped out, but Yoshi ate it before it could eat them.

"Wario." Mario tossed him a fire flower. "Just in case."

So Mario, Wario and the party of yoshies made their way into the underground plant-infested maze.

_Piranha Pipe_

There are many types of piranha plants. Most of them are rooted to pipes or the ground, but some of them can use their roots as legs and walk, some can spit fireballs, and Piranha pipe had every one imaginable. The yoshies were pretty good at clearing the way, but Mario and Wario still had to watch their backs.

"Look out!" Mario threw a fireball which hit the plant above Wario just before Wario became dinner.

"I knew that was there!" Wario lied.

"You're welcome." Mario said sarcastically.

The yoshies ran, eating in their way, and they made much better timing than Mario expected.

"I think we're almost there!" Mario said happily.

_Dark Land_

Dark Land is a wasteland filled with nothing but volcanoes and pools of lava, which constantly overflow and burn the nearby dead trees. The ground was free of any precipitation and dotted with rock formations shaped like skulls and real skulls as well. When black clouds don't cover the sun it's like a desert, but that happens rarely. Bowser used to have a castle here but decided that the air was too toxic, even for him.

"I knew Bleck wouldn't touch this place." Bowser said as he roamed. "It must be around here somewhere. Oh Yeah..."

_Bleck's new castle_

"Shut up, or I'm gonna slip through these bars and beat you down!"

"Even if you could get over here, I'd break you in half like a toothpick!" As Liugi and his opposite Waluigi bickered, the other prisoners looked over, annoyed.

"Will you two stop it?" Peach finally yelled. The two finally settled down. Luigi sat in the corner of his cell. "Do you think we'll make it out of this one?"

"Of course." Peach said, but she didn't sound too sure. "Mario will come for us."

"You're right, I know my brother…" But Luigi didn't sound too sure either. Mario could be dead for all he knew. Luigi could see his breath. Obviously Bleck didn't care weather or not they froze to death.

"It's so cold." Luigi looked out the barred window. Even though it was day time in Ice Land, he saw the west cresent moon and the east full moon. One thing Bowser forgot about was that the east moon orbits the kingdom twice every year. It could only be seen if it was looked at from the west, and now it was visible from Ice Land.

"You know what?" He said. "I'm sick of sitting here rotting in this prison!" Luigi put his hands around the steel bars and seemingly effortlessly bent them out of the way and walked through.

"All right Luweenie!" Waluigi said. "Get us out of here!" But to Waluigi's shocking disappointment, the only other cell he opened was Peach's.

"I don't hate you all-Well, except you, Waluigi," He said, "But I don't like any of you that much either."

Peach wanted to get out now.

"Hold on." Luigi said. "Let me take care of Count Bleck."

"Oh, no you don't!" boomed a voice from the stairway. As the person came down he revealed himself to be Bleck himself. Luigi charged and began punching him. Count Bleck was slightly surprised at first, but then he reversed Luigi's punches.

"I should have expected this sorcery from Bowser." He took Luigi's hat and reversed the spell, and put it back on Luigi's head for him.

"Now... what was it... that you wanted to do again?" Luigi's senses returned.

"What was I thinking? Run!" Luigi and Peach ran, but only Luigi made it out. Bleck grabbed Peach and threw her back in the cell and bent the bars back into place.

"Run now, Luigi, but I will see you again. And you will be my prisoner!"

_Piranha Pipe_

"There's the exit!" Mario shouted. They finally made it to the end of Piranha Pipe. The Yoshies jumped. Mario and Yoshi launched out of the pipe.

"Where's Wario?" said Mario Yoshi shrugged.

"Look out!" He heard Wario exclaim, but it was too late and Wario shot out of the pipe and landed straight on top of Mario.

"Get off of me, you fatso!" Mario yelled."

The first thing they noticed was the temperature change. It was much colder than it was when they got in.

"We're almost there." Mario said. Yoshi directed his friends to split up, while Yoshi joined the group.

"Well, Yoshi, just thought I'd let you know, I'm on your side for now." Everyone turned their heads to see that Bowser had been waiting with them, and in his hands was a humongous weapon that looked like some sort of combination between a wrench and a bazooka.

"What's that?" Wario asked curiously.

"It's a plumber's tool…" Mario answered for him.

"It's a _hard core_ plumber's tool." Bowser corrected.

"Where on earth did you get one of those?"

"It's a long story, and I don't plan on telling you about it."

"Hey, look!" Wario's attention had already drifted away from Bowser's hard core plumber's tool to a heavily armored war truck which had seemed to have steered off course and into a dune of snow.

"What do you suppose scared your troops off, Bowser?" Mario asked.

"Probably nothing, my troops aren't known for their intelligence." Bowser and Mario were both surprised to hear a voice coming from the back of the vehicle.

"Hey! Is someone out there? Please, help!"

Mario rushed up and opened the doors to see Princess Daisy tied up. Mario frantically untied her and helped her out.

"Mario, thank God, I thought I was going to be stuck in there forever!" Daisy looked around and instantly became confused at Bowser's presence.

"Bowser? But I thought-"

"I had nothing to do with your kidnapping or anyone else's this time." Bowser interrupted.

"But your troops- your equipment-"

Mario said "Count Bleck has taken over, Daisy. He's manipulated Bowser's troops and taken everyone we know hostage."

"Luigi?" Daisy asked concerned.

Mario nodded. "Everyone, get in this truck. We'll be able to follow these other tire tracks and get to where Bleck took the others."

Yoshi and Daisy took their place in the back seat, and Bowser jumped in the trunk and retreated into his shell. Mario was about to get into the driver's seat but Wario grabbed his overall straps and threw him out.

"I don't think so, I'm driving!" he said and hopped into the front seat, making the whole truck tilt.

"Whatever." Mario said and got into the passenger seat. "This will get us through the ice no problem."

_Wilderness of Ice Land_

Luigi slowed his running. As far as he knew, he was out of Count Bleck's clutches for now, and he didn't seem to send any troops out to get him back.

"Damn." Mario was going to be furious when he found out he had left the princess behind. "I'm sorry, Mario…" Luigi was stumped. He didn't know where his brother was or even if he was going in the right direction. So, he decided to take a break and sat down flat on the icy ground. He sighed.

"Now what?" He asked himself. Soon enough, the answer came to him.

"A Yoshi!" And sure enough, there was a lone red Yoshi wandering around. Luigi asked "Do you know where Mario is?" And the little creature nodded.

"Great! Hold on." Luigi found a question block and bopped it with his fist. He was lucky enough to get a fire flower on his first try. "Okay, now take me there!" He jumped on and they were off.

_Entrance to Ice Land_

"We're almost there!" Daisy said cheerfully. "We're gonna defeat Count Bleck, and we're gonna get my boyfriend back!"

"Hey, quiet back there!" Wario yelled. "It's hard enough to drive in this bad visibility; I don't need your overly positive cheers distracting me!" Mario noticed something flying straight at them. It was a branzai bill.

"Wario! The road, LOOK AT THE ROAD!"

"Huh?" Wario turned his head, but he had no time to avoid the danger. Everyone jumped out of the truck before the collision, and landed in the frigid snow. The truck exploded leaving the five stranded. Mario was furious.

"First your bike and now this? I thought you would've learned your lesson by now!"

"Hey, look up in the sky!" Bowser interrupted pointing up. An armada of flying koopas, all of them were tinted with the purple spell started swarming like angry wasps. Mario heard someone calling him through all the chaos.

"Luigi! Luigi, is that you?" Mario vaguely saw his brother through the attacking troops. Daisy ran on top of a hill of snow and started waving.

"Over here, Luigi!"

"Daisy, behind you!" Luigi tried to warn. But he was too late, as two koopa paratroopas grabbed her and flew off.

"No!" Luigi jumped off his yoshi and tried to follow them, but soom they were too far away. The troops began to retreat, as they only needed to take one prisoner. Mario reached into his blue box looking for a cape.

"Save it, Mario." Luigi suggested. "I know where they're going. Count Bleck set up a castle that-a-way. They've got everyone else."

'"Luigi, we need to put an end to this."

"I know. Follow me"

_Count Bleck's Castle_

Count Bleck had Daisy put with the rest of the prisoners. He knew the last of the heroes and villains would follow his pawns.

"Troops, man your stations." He ordered. His calm voice echoed through the base and everyone knew exactly what to do. Bowser's ex-troops assembled into a well-organized machine. It seemed like nothing could beat it, let alone two plumbers, a fat biker and two reptiles. Then again, these weren't just any plumbers, bikers, and reptiles; these were Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, and Bowser.

_Bleck's Prison_

"Daisy," Peach said, "What's happening out there."

"Mario's coming." Daisy wasn't quite as affected by the rapidly dropping temperature, as she had only just arrived. "He's teamed up with Wario and Bowser, and they're on their way."

Peach was relieved to hear that Mario was okay, but then she thought of something

"I'm worried." She said. "Count Bleck must have something planned. I have a feeling that if the rest fall prisoner, all hope is lost."

"Why would Count Bleck do this?"

Instantly, the dark Count appeared. Waluigi, who was previously trying his best to warm up jumped to his feet and grabbed the bars to his cell.

"What is this?" He shouted "Tell me what you're doing, NOW!" To this, the count responded with one word.

"Chaos." And as soon as he appeared, he was gone again.

_The Castle Courtyard_

Count Bleck's castle loomed in front of the heroes; an icy silhouette painted onto the blue-gray sky. The army approached the five as they prepared to fight. Mario used his cape and Luigi used his fire flower. Bowser prepared his plumber's tool. Yoshi had a spicy red pepper, which gave him extra speed and the ability to breathe fire.

"Hey! What do I use?" Wario pouted.

"Don't you have _anything_?" Bowser asked.

"Well I do have this." Wario said taking out a metal box. It underwent its complex process and unfolded into a brand new bike!

"You had two this whole time?"

"This one's just a spare."

Wario hopped on and started up his bike. Everyone was nervous as the brilliantly assembled army got closer and closer. Mario gulped and said "Get ready, guys. This isn't going to be easy." Then he took a step forward and yelled "Let's-a go!"

Wario started riding circled around the enemies. Even under Count Bleck's spell, Bowser's monsters weren't very bright. They allowed themselves to be distracted and Wario found the perfect opportunity to make road pizzas out of them. Yoshi's dino-sized appetite was his advantage and the spicy pepper he ate gave him enough energy to catch them. Luigi barraged the enemies with bouncing orbs of fire, but he had to be careful. If he got wounded, his power would be gone. Bowser's plumber's tool turned out to be a bazooka-like rocket launcher. Piles and piles of bad guys were being taken out at once, but they just kept coming. While he reloaded, he charged them with his fire breath.

As for Mario, he took to the skies. His cape was perfect for deflecting bullet bills and Bob-obms. It was a thousand against five, and Mario knew he couldn't afford any losses. The Italian plumber had high hopes as the enormous army seemed to be rapidly shrinking.

Soon the hardest part came up. A good number of the troops were gone, but everyone exhausted all their resources. Wario's bike ran out of gas, Bowser's plumber's tool ran out of ammo. The effects of Yoshi's pepper wore off, and the Mario brothers lost their power-ups.

"I'm going in." Mario informed. "I need you to distract the rest of the troops."

Mario made his way toward the massive door, fighting through the remaining pawns as his friends distracted the rest. Right before he charged in something caught his eye. It looked like a shadow, except it appeared right in front of him. He tried look at it from a different angle, but when he turned, it disappeared.

"What is this?"

Mario noticed that the black box could only be viewed from one angle. He bashed it and a flower sprung out. Except this flower was pitch black like the two dimensional box it came from, and its eyes were so white, it seemed like nothing was there at all. There was no doubt that it was important. Mario buried it in his pocket and proceeded inside.

Instead of going straight to fight Count Bleck, Mario went down the stairs to free the prisoners. This way, even if he failed, there was still a chance that Bleck's chaotic reign would end. All the heads turned to him.

"Don't worry, everyone, I'm gonna get you out of here… but how?"

"Only one way," A voice came from a dark corner. It was a huge hammer brother with a gold key chained to him. "You've got to beat me."

Before Mario even had time to prepare, a sound of a piece of metal hitting a watermelon traveled through the prison. The hammer brother fell unconscious and Luigi was revealed to be standing behind him with a wrench in his hand.

"We need to get out of here," Peach said urgently. "Count Bleck can appear here at will!"

"Don't worry, Peach, nothing bad is going to happen." Mario assured.

Soon, everyone was out, and started heading for the exit. Not everyone got out. New prison bars made out of electricity separated Mario and Luigi away from everyone else, and the count teleported right in front of the two. Mario was surprised at how dark he had become.

"Blumiere, what has happened to you?" Mario questioned.

"You fool. I am not Lord Blumiere, I am merely the chaos that left him. Let's just say you won't be seeing much of him today."

"If you're not Blumiere, then who are you?"

"I've found a new host; the name is none of your concern. Now, time to play a game."

"We're not interested in any of your games, Count!" Luigi exclaimed. "Why don't you just go away and spare yourself the pain of defeat."

"Listen, you!" The chaotic being retaliated, "I have no problem with wiping your face from existence. In fact, I intended to do just that. But I want to give you one more chance."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's going to be a brother versus brother fight to the death. The winner will live with his lady in my new world forever. The loser, along with everyone else here will be expelled from existence forever."

"No!" Mario said. "I'm not fighting my own brother."

"Fine, it's not the worst ending ever." Count Bleck said, not too disappointed. "I possess the power to kill you all anyways, so you may as well start saying your goodbyes." Bleck started forming a dense black hole that looked like nothing but trouble.

"I've got one more trick up my sleeve." Mario said. He pulled out the black flower and absorbed its essence. Mario's hat was replaced with a white top hat, his overalls with a multicolored cape. Then he ceased to be altogether. In his place was someone else. He was a young looking man with a monocle over his right eye and a crystal scepter in his left hand. It was Lord Blumiere, Count Bleck's former host. He spoke:

"Ancient Minister, my old friend. I knew for quite some time that something had taken hold of you. After all, it wasn't like you trying to merge worlds in the first place."

"Blumiere! No, get away!" Count Bleck began cowering in disbelief. How could Mario have found his hiding spot?

"I have had about enough of you, Bleck. Maybe next time you could try corrupting something smaller; a frog perhaps. Now it's time for you to return to the realm of darkness."

Blumiere cast a spell at the count in the form of black fire. Bleck was split in two, one being complete darkness and the other being the ancient minister himself. He began teleporting away, with only enough time to say "I'm sorry."

The darkness tried to resist the pull, but it tore and was sucked back to where it came from. Blumiere started disappearing and Mario took his place.

"Mario, thank goodness!" Peach ran over to him and gave him a big kiss on the nose. Daisy did the same to Luigi.

"Are you okay, bro?" Luigi asked just to make sure.

"I don't like the look of this" Mario pointed to the dense black energy which remained. Mario saw everything, even when he wasn't there. He understood that he needed to get everyone as far away from the castle as possible.

"Everyone, get out _now!_"

Everyone ran outside, where the Bowser, Yoshi, and Wario were standing in confusion. With his defeat Count Bleck's troops shut down and stopped attacking. Wario stopped Waluigi.

"What happened?"

"We won, now RUN!"

As the black orb exploded, the whole castle grounds were leveled. Not even a brick remained in place, and a field of snow was all that was left behind. Miraculously, everyone managed to escape the blast.

"Is everyone okay?" Peach asked. No one objected. "What now?"

"When we get home," Mario said. "We can get the castle rebuilt."

"Until then we can stay at my mansion." Luigi suggested. "We could have a celebration, maybe negotiate a new peace."

"Peace?" Bowser interrupted. "The threat's over, that means our alliance is too." Bowser started walking away, but turned his head. "Maybe next time we fight I'll have a bit more respect for you good guys."

Bowser started heading home on his own and several other prisoners left did the same giving Mario and the others a bow to show their respect.

"Count me in," Said Wario, "I think you guys owe me a little something-something for all my trouble."

"Great, now how are we gonna get there?" Mario questioned. "It'll take us days to walk that far!"

Suddenly, a blue car with a mushroom shape on the antenna burst through a dune of snow. The driver slammed on the breaks.

"Toad!" Everyone shouted.

"Anyone need a ride?" The mushroom fellow asked.'

"You got any fuel."

"Yeah, I have one in the trunk for emergen-"As Toad was talking, Wario forced the trunk open and took the fuel.

"See you guys at the mansion! Come on, Waluigi." Wario jumped on his bike and sped off.

"Okay, someone's really going to have to tell me what's going on here." Toad said as everyone else got in and they took off.

_Luigi's Mansion_

It felt good to be out of the cold. It was another beautiful day at Luigi's mansion. Everyone was celebration on Luigi's roof patio. There was plenty of food and music was playing. On the other side of the kingdom, Peach's castle was being rebuilt. Count Bleck had been defeated and Bowser was busy rebuilding. Even Wario and Waluigi, who were normally neutral, had proven themselves better than everyone thought. For now everything seemed to be okay. For now everything was at peace.

The End


End file.
